after supporting defense of marriage act the obama administration concluded last year it violates the constitution. >> we cannot defend the federal government poking its nose into what states are doing and putting a thumb on the scale against same-sex couples. >> house republicans are now taking up the law's legal defense. supporters say it helps preserve traditional marriage. >> unions of two men or two men are not the same as a marriage between a man and a woman. only marriage between man and a woman can connect children to their mother and father and their parents to the children. >> now, alex, the fact the court has agreed to take up both questions, including the one from california, could mean the justices are prepared to get to the constitutional heart of the same-sex marriage issue. if it did that, that might result in what would essentially be the roe v. wade of gay rights. alex. >> taking up this prop 8 with california, would their ruling necessarily apply then only to california? >> that's possible. it's possible, because the appeals court ruling that comes to the supreme co